Develop Of Hybrid Electric Towbarless Aircraft Towing Tractor

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) combine the advantages of conventional engine-driven vehicles and pure Electric Vehicles (EV). This provides satisfied driving performance and lower exhaust emission. Thus, HEV is a feasible solution to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution problems. Now the HEV technology has been developed and implemented in various vehicles.Aircraft towing tractor, as an important airport ground support equipment (GSE), is used for moving various aircraft on the ground. Whenever operating conditions require use in closed buildings as well as large distances outdoors, traditional tractors prove to be inadequate: while diesel tractors are excellently suited for covering great distances outdoors, they can be used only very limitedly in closed buildings because of the emissions. Electric tractors on the other hand are suitable for use in closed spaces but not for use on airport grounds due to their limited battery capacity. So many hybrid electric aircraft towing tractors come out.This paper gives a new try to apply the parallel hybrid configuration in towbarless aircraft towing tractor. Firstly, the paper discusses the development actuality of HEV technology and aircraft towing tractor technology. Secondly, gives an analysis on different kinds of hybrid configurations of HEV, and designs the powertrain of the hybrid electric aircraft towing tractor. Then the controller, the circuit of the control system and the control strategy are analyzed and designed. At last, the control system is programmed and tested, and the results show that the parallel hybrid drive system achieves the performance requirement which is expected for the aircraft towing tractor.